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BGU Helps Open Senior Citizens Technology Lab

Globes – The Center for Digital Innovation (CDI), a nonprofit support center that combines aspects of a business incubator, think tank and startup company, just launched what it claims is the world’s first innovation laboratory designed to meet the challenges facing today’s senior citizens.

The laboratory is on CDI’s premises in Beer-Sheva’s Advanced Technologies Park. This lab was established in collaboration with Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, the National Insurance Institute of Israel, the Beer-Sheva Municipality, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and Amal & Beyond Group.

The lab will take on the increasingly complex challenges of today’s elderly population. Among them are the prevention of falls, alleviating loneliness, preventing deterioration in those whose functionalities are already limited, treatment of pain, and new technologies designed to assist in basic domestic activities like bathing and using the toilet.

Some of the startups and innovative projects currently operating in the lab are:

UniperCare– a TV platform designed to improve the communication process between the elderly and their families.

BetterCare – an application designed to provide caregivers at nursing homes and centers precise information and a means of monitoring the quality of the care they provide.

Vitalerter – a wireless, monitoring platform which monitors heart rate and the respiratory system. The system provides alerts when it identifies potential falls, infections, depression, anxiety, and general deterioration in the patient’s state.

HEALTHYIO – A home urine testing kit that produces test results within minutes and provides the results to the patient’s physician using a smartphone camera.

Story – a digital timeline platform, designed to let senior citizens tell their life stories and share them with their loved ones.

The lab will operate according to an integrated methodology, developed at CDI, which allows for an ecosystem of partners to find new innovative solutions, whether technological, methodological or social. These solutions will be tested in the lab and piloted in Beer-Sheva. Depending on the level of their success, the newly created solutions will be further implemented first on the municipal level and then beyond.

CDI co-founder Boaz Gur Lavie says, “The innovation lab we have established in the Negev is a first of its kind in the entire world. The prolonged life expectancy of today’s senior citizens has brought upon us new challenges.

“The market for these initiatives is huge and holds great potential. Now we are simply giving a chance to the great minds of our startup nation to prove their capabilities in this area as well.”